Anyone who comes to China as a foreigner needs a few weeks to become digitally socially acceptable. Many apps that are used every day in the West are blocked in China: Google and Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, WhatsApp and other messenger services, as well as many news apps such as that of the Handelsblatt. Amazon and Uber are also not available in China.
Here Baidu is used instead of Google, Taobao and JD.com instead of Amazon, and Weibo instead of Twitter. Many Chinese use Bilibili, Kuaishou, or Youku to watch videos or live streams on their smartphones. Tiktok is called Douyin here, both belong to the Chinese parent company Bytedance. The Tencent App Store is particularly popular for games. The most used food delivery platforms are Meituan and Eleme.
The decoupling of the digital worlds between China and the West is already a reality on smartphones. This gives a foretaste of what consequences further decoupling can have in everyday life. Those who travel from one world to the other, like me, need some time to get used to the new digital environment. Especially since many of the Chinese apps can only be operated really well with characters.
By far the most important app is Weixin (Wechat). Originally it was a messenger app similar to WhatsApp. However, it is now a kind of super app, without which everyday life in China is much more complicated. Wechat is used to order, pay, check in, communicate and get information. Countless other so-called mini-programs can be installed in the app.
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But it is not enough to download Wechat. If you want to reinstall the app, you need at least one existing user who confirms the identity of the newcomer. In addition to the communication function, the most important applications are paying with Wechat Pay and – since Covid – checking in with the Corona health code in shops, restaurants, offices and residential buildings.
Almost nothing works without the digital wallet
Everyone coming to Beijing at present needs Beijing Health Kit mini-program in Wechat. Anyone arriving from abroad must quarantine for 22 days in a hotel room far from the capital until the health kit turns green (“no abnormal conditions”).
It worked for me when I left for Beijing. But as soon as we arrived, the health code stopped working. Presumably because of the newly registered Chinese cell phone number. It took almost ten days until it turned green again.
The next challenge: Setting up the Wechat Pay payment function. Almost nothing works without the digital wallet. Because in everyday life in China, people hardly ever pay with cash. Anyone who goes to a restaurant scans a QR code on the table. A mini-program opens in Wechat with the menu. You choose the dishes, order and pay with just a few clicks.
However, in order to use the Wechat payment function without any problems, you ideally need a Chinese bank account. The competing app Alipay can also be linked to a foreign credit card, but that doesn’t always work.
You can also pay in cash if necessary. But sometimes you get pitying looks, as if you came straight from the Stone Age, combined with the request to pay the right amount. Because not everyone has change ready.
>> Read here: Censorship and surveillance: Asia says goodbye to the free Internet
Since Friday, almost six weeks after my arrival, the time has come. I have a Chinese mobile number, a Chinese bank account and Wechat Pay, can order food and taxis, rent a bike, shop online and pay. I have now installed almost 20 more mini-programs in my Wechat app.
I still have to find out what you really need and what is only used to access data. It will still take some time to find your way in the new digital world. After all, my health kit is green.
In the Asia Techonomics column, Nicole Bastian, Sabine Gusbeth, Dana Heide, Martin Kölling and Mathias Peer take turns writing about innovation and economic trends in the most dynamic region in the world.
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